WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION? What should this law actually look like?

04 February 2025, Version 2
This content is an early or alternative research output and has not been peer-reviewed by Cambridge University Press at the time of posting.

Abstract

The evolution of the law of universal gravitation is shown from the verbal formula proposed by Newton in 1687 to the present day. The law discovered by Newton FN ∝ mM/r^2 was not the exact law of gravitation. Newton only indicated the proportional dependence of force on masses and did not attribute any numerical value to the gravitational force. In an unfinished form, Newton's law FN ∝ mM/r^2 existed for almost 200 years (!) until the constant G appeared in it. But even in its modern formulation, Newton's law F = GMm/r^2 gives only a part of the force of universal gravitation. Newton's law does not work at large distances. Newton's law is not applicable on the scale of the Universe. The formula for Newton's law shows the force of gravitational interaction of only two bodies out of all N bodies in the Universe. The formula for the law describes gravitation only to one local source of attraction and does not take into account that bodies simultaneously gravitate to all other bodies. For more than 300 years, it has not been possible to derive a formula for the law of gravitation that would describe the gravitation to all bodies in the Universe. An obstacle on this path is the unsolved gravitational problem of N bodies. Here we provide a solution to this problem. .

Keywords

Newton's law
N-body problem
law of universal gravitation
parameters of the observable universe
dark matter
galaxy rotation curve
cosmological constant Ʌ
Pioneer anomaly.

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting and Discussion Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.